


The Ocean’s Song

by kingofthesun



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Captain Sea Hawk, F/M, Minor Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Minor Adora/Glimmer (She-Ra), Pining, Pirates, blatant pining, for now, historic fantasy, human mermista, human!mermista, idk how to tag anything, it’s just sea hawk pining, mermista is a human if you didn’t get that, perfuma will be a witch, pining sea hawk, seamista - Freeform, what?? a spop fic where catradora isn’t main?? it’s more likely than you think
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:08:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22561519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingofthesun/pseuds/kingofthesun
Summary: “The Mother of Pearl was a gift from the Land to his lover, the Ocean. Created by combining a piece of himself with a piece of her, birthing the gift of perfection and beauty. The Ocean loved the gift, parading it around with pride and joy for it was proof that the Land loved her and the beauty that they could make together. The whole world knew of the Pearl, so it was only inevitable that it would go missing, stolen. The Ocean threw tantrums, crying and crying and beating against the Land to find her Pearl but he never did. To make up for it, he created oysters, who live within the depths and are cursed with the irritation of sand, creating a limitless supply of pearls, so the Ocean could have as many as she wanted, but that was not enough. She wanted her Pearl, their Pearl. Every time a terrible storm brings itself upon our town, it’s the Ocean begging for her Pearl back and wanting to punish whoever stole it.“
Relationships: Mermista & Sea Hawk (She-Ra), Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	The Ocean’s Song

_ Water… is wet, right? Fuck, my head… _

It felt like his head was swelling up, ready to pop at any moment. Captain Sea Hawk, real name unknown, shut his eyes tightly as the sickening surge of vertigo took over his body, overwhelming his senses. He took a deep breath and held it, a practice he found most useful when he got hit with bouts of what he can only describe as sea sickness but on land. Land sickness. 

Like clockwork, as his oxygen dwindled away, his vision cleared and before him was the embodiment of pure beauty. She only appeared in his visions, staying as long as his breath would allow. She could only be described as a ten-story tall mermaid goddess, a deity with curly teal locks which cascaded down her broad, tanned shoulders, the color of leather which had been cured in the sun. Her thick ringlets of hair covered her bosom and framed her round face which housed downwards sloped eyes that were like pools of silver which reflected the moonlight. Her full lips pursed and Sea Hawk braced himself for what she was about to say, for it was always the same thing.

_ “Pirate, bring me the Mother of Pearl!” _

The pirate captain was no stranger to the hauntingly beautiful mermaid’s demands, he  _ has _ been suffering from them for three months time now. 

At first, he thought he was going mad, Sailor’s Sickness, a common mental plague that many land lovers get when suck watching the lapping waves for months at a time. It didn’t make sense for him to get it, he’s been sailing the ocean blue ever since he was a wee tyke, but what else would explain the appearance of a demanding sea goddess that lurked in his dreams?

It all began when he fell overboard. A few too many sips of rum had him toppling over the railing and plunging head-first into the icy Atlantic Ocean, heading towards Northeastern America. The shock was enough to sober up any old drunk, and Sea Hawk’s eyes flew open, the murky saltwater stinging his eyes. There, he saw her, a glowing figure twice the length of his beloved ship, swimming circles around his slowly freezing form. Her magnificent turquoise tail, which shifted colors in the moonlight, scratched against his skin like the scales of a trout, and when his foggy vision met her glowing irises, the next thing he knew he was waking up aboard the deck of his ship with his first mate shouting frantic orders above him.

A bond was formed that night when the mermaid saved the life of a pirate, and if he knew what would come of it, Sea Hawk would have asked to be left to drown. In return for rescuing him, the mermaid has asked for just a simple favor. 

Find the Mother of Pearl.

Well, it turns out that it is not as simple as it seems because other than a name, Sea Hawk has received no information on this treasure and the significance it holds. The ocean deity just appears in a vision among a swirling whirlpool, flips her tail and demands this pearl be brought to her before Sea Hawk loses his breath and life resumes as normal.

This time was no different, he and his crew had just stopped at a port alongside the western end of the Silk Road, preparing to stock up for their journey towards the Indian Ocean, a small detour towards their final destination towards the volcanic islands of the Pacific, a broad ocean perfecting for scouting for lost ships full of treasure (and he hears it’s a nice place to relax). 

He was overseeing his crew unloading and loading crates and barrels before dismissing them for the night. As ritual, Sea Hawk was going to excuse himself and find a local pub to indulge himself in the local stories, sharing some of his own in return. His first and second mate claim he embellishes terribly, making their adventures seem wildly more outlandish than they already were, but Sea Hawk denies the fact, always the one to chase adventure no matter where it leads. 

But something… was off. As soon as the heel of his boot hit the dock, blood rushed to his ears and the suffocating feeling of vertigo took over his senses and his vision drowned in darkness. Instead of the dominating stance the mermaid usually took amidst her swirling watery cyclone, she laid on her side in a shallow pool, arm lain out in front of her, color fading from her tail. Her sun kissed skin was missing it’s healthy sheen, and the roots of her hair was fading to black, it looked as if she was dying.

_ “Pirate…” _ she began, her voice hoarse,  _ “You must bring me the Mother of Pearl before it is too late.” _

She coughed, an inky black substance leaving her lungs. Sea Hawk took a step towards her giant form, the water rippling beneath his feet in the stoic pool.

_ “She… will show you… the ocean depends on it.” _

She? Who is she? The mermaid has never mentioned a third party. The ocean goddess rolled onto her back, her form slowly sinking below the water. Sea Hawk began to panic, for she was dying and all he had to help was a rock and a mysterious woman. 

_ “Go forth, pirate… I am counting on you…” _

“Wait!”

Sea Hawk gasped for air, his reality snapping back into fruition before him. The captain hunched over, hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath, eyes darting back and forth as his mind digested the new information. The beautiful mermaid was dying, the ocean was dying, and it was his job to help them. 

A gentle hand placed itself on Sea Hawk’s back, and a voice drew him back to where he was. 

“Captain? Are you alright? You were sort of just standing there… again.”

Bow, Sea Hawk’s first mate, and arguably his common sense, held a concern looked as Sea Hawk straightened his back and gained his composure. 

“Yes, yes, I’m fine. Everything's fine. Just a bit warm, must need to sit down.”

A laugh echoed behind him as his second mate came to the two men’s side, dropping a box of empty liquor bottles. 

“ _ ‘Just a bit warm’ _ my ass, Captain. It’s a fortnight past the autumn equinox. You were just ogling women again and got caught, didn’t you?” 

Glimmer, who stood almost a foot shorter than the pirate captain, nudged his side with her elbow. 

“So? Where is she? Is she cute? If she is, I’ll make a move if you won’t.” 

She winked and Sea Hawk had to chuckle. His first and second mate were quite literally his ride or dies. Bow was a good kid,  _ was _ before he was framed for the hacking and stealing of five dozen automated pirate bots from the notorious smuggler, Entraptic Eel, Entrapta to her friends. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, with no alibi to support him for his fathers believed him to be in Lancaster for boarding school. He found a home on Sea Hawk’s ship after he proved himself to be a gifted cartographer with a big heart (and a deadly eye with a ranged weapon). 

Glimmer on the other hand, had a heart made of lock picks and dust. A princess next in line for the throne, she stowed away on Sea Hawk’s ship to escape her overbearing mother and has been on the run since. Sea Hawk soon found out that she can get anywhere, anytime without being noticed, and he’s half convinced that she can possibly teleport, but he hasn’t been able to prove his theory.

The three of them are a family, with Sea Hawk and Glimmer sharing a passion for pyrotechnics, and Bow finding comfort with a fire extinguisher. Were they the most feared on the seven seas? No (Well, maybe Glimmer was.). The most successful? Definitely not. But they sure knew how to be happy and have fun. 

Sea Hawk brushed away Glimmer’s elbow, stepping out between the two mates. 

“I wasn’t ogling, just thinking. Thinking about feeling warm… and how warm it is…. this excuse is falling apart, isn’t it?”

Sea Hawk pushed back the bangs of his hair and let out a sigh of frustration. “It was nothing, forget about it. Has everything needed be unloaded?”

“Was it her?”

Glimmer had found a home piggy backed on Sea Hawk so her eyes were now level with his. He stumbled and caught his footing, instinctively grabbing onto her legs to keep her steady (this was not the first time his second mate has attacked his personal space). His eyes followed Glimmer’s outstretched arm and followed her point to a small house along the deck where two figures sat among a mass of rope. 

A middle-aged fisherman stood with one foot on his boat as he tightened the rope to the dock. He looked to be about half a foot taller than Sea Hawk (who already measured a whopping 6’1”) with a large build, and a thick salt and peppered beard. He stood straight and readjusted his toboggan to reveal unruly grey eyebrows that contrasted against his deeply tanned skin from decades of working on the sea.

“Mermista, please reconsider.” The fisherman implored, gazing down the the second figure, “I am only wanting what is best for you. You’re mother would have wanted you happy and taken care of.”

“No, baba. Why must my success be measured by the man I marry? I can't meet these so-called suitors while you’re away. I refuse.” The man’s daughter sat on a crate by the boat, hand-stitching closed a hole that had ripped in one of the fisherman’s nets, “And I told you to stop using that ridiculous nickname. I stopped believing in mermaids a long time ago…”

The fisherman sighed in defeat, he knew her response before he asked, but he thought after six years she would have changed her mind from when she was fourteen. He grabbed a mass of net and threw it aboard and left his irritated daughter to finish up her stitching.

With her frizzy black hair pulled back into a messy braid, and her soft blue muslin dress stained with saltwater, Sea Hawk would have passed her off as an ordinary pedestrian. But he recognized that sun-kissed complexion and that sharp nose, those eyes that hold the fire of a hungry great white which are usually hypnotized with pools of silver. Somehow, the fisherman’s daughter was a carbon copy of the dying mermaid deity, only lacking the magnificent blue tail that would leave her ocean-locked, and about nine and a half stories shorter. 

Sea Hawk’s staring did not go unnoticed, with Glimmer hollering “I knew it!” and jumping from her captain’s back, landing in a pile of crates that only made the sound of a thousand crashing waves, it was only a matter of time before the fisherman’s daughter caught sight of the slack-jawed pirate. 

When their eyes met, Sea Hawk felt pressure build up in his sinuses and heat burst across his cheeks. He felt the familiar bout of vertigo weighing down on his head as Mermista threw down the now patched up net and stormed her way over to him. He felt sick. Was he dying? Can you drown on land? With each step taken forward by the now irritated tail-less mermaid, Sea Hawk took a step back. The crystal clear blue sky began to grow dark with storm clouds, and thunder cracked as Mermista jabbed her pointed finger into Sea Hawk’s chest, the already irritated princess growing more confrontational as time went on.

“Do you have something to say, pirate?”

The way the word pirate rolled off her tongue, picking up the flavor of her slight accent, rang identical to his haunting mermaid. Both tones held demands, but the girl who cornered him in had tone of anger, and Sea Hawk could only gape speechless. 

“I, uh… err… I… don’t…”

“Men!” She finally backed off and Sea Hawk stumbled backwards, his backside planting itself firmly seated on an awaiting barrel, “The fact that my father wants me to spend my life with one! He’s impossible.”

She crossed her arms across her chest and eyed the sitting pirate up and down, her eyes narrowed as she scrutinized the awed captain.

“Ugh, what?”

She was getting impatient, and Sea Hawk’s mouth was getting dry. He stared up at her, their eyes locked on each other, and their gazes never left each other as Sea Hawk stood up.

“You’re beautiful.”

Another boom of thunder rumbled through the darkened sky, acting as if responding like a buzzer that told Sea Hawk what he said was the wrong answer. The storm clouds continued to gather, becoming dense enough to block the once shining sun out of view completely. 

Mermista rolled her eyes and promptly turned on her heel to face her back to Sea Hawk as she walked back towards her spot on the dock where her father stood watching the growing storm, perplexed. 

Snickers from the other side of the dock where Sea Hawk left his mates knocked him out of his daze. Glimmer cupped her hands over her mouth and hollered, gaining the attention of all the attendants that swarmed the bust port city. 

“Nice one, Captain! You’ll for sure get in her pants that way!”

Sea Hawk slapped his hand onto his face and dragged it down, hoping to cure the obvious redness in his cheeks some before responding.

“Bow, remind me to leave her here when we sail off tomorrow.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“HEY! Wait a minute!”

Bow and Glimmer’s bickering was drowned out by the growing waves that lapped against the hulls of the ships that were docked. Sea Hawk ran his hands down his pants, trying to rid some of the sweat that had formed on his palms. He took a deep breath and made his way towards the fisherman’s daughter, who now busied herself with loping off the heads of a bucket of minnows for bait, her seething anger apparent from how white her knuckles were from gripping the paring knife. 

He clasped his hands behind his back as he moved to stand in front of her, stretching on top of his toes as he rocked back and forth out of nervousness. 

“Um, excuse me—”

“A Captain, huh? You seem more like a cabin boy for how much you hesitate.” 

Sea Hawk’s mouth snapped shut as Mermista put down the poor minnow she was wrestling the head off of.

“If you’re just going to say something stupid again, might as well just leave me alone.”

He shook his head and took a deep breath, “Have you heard of the Mother of Pearl?”

Mermista started up at him, “No.”

“That’s great! I have a few ques— No?! What do you mean ‘no’?”

She rolled her eyes and grabbed another minnow from the bucket. 

“I  _ mean _ that I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Lightning traveled through the clouds, followed by a rumble of thunder. Mermista’s father murmured something along the lines of a “peculiar storm”, the clouds looked ready to burst, yet no rain fell. Not yet. 

Sea Hawk ran his fingers through his bangs, frustrated. Who else would this ‘she’ be that the mermaid was talking about, if not her human doppelgänger? 

Mermista sighed, “If it’s treasure you want, you’re better off robbing the British Royal transport, at least those gold coins are real.”

“So you have heard of it?”

“Who hasn’t? It's a foolish fairytale they tell children to explain the storms.”

The pirate captain blinked and tilted his head, Mermista could almost imagine floppy puppy ears falling to the side. 

She groaned and rolled her head to stretch out her neck, she was beginning to feel tense. Maybe she was just losing brain cells talking to this clueless pirate. 

“The Mother of Pearl was a gift from the Land to the Ocean, a piece of himself combined with a piece from the Ocean which created the Pearl. The Ocean loved the gift, parading it around with pride and joy for it was proof that the Land loved her and the beauty that they could make together. The problem with showing off gifts though is that now everyone knows you have something, so it was only inevitable that it would go missing, stolen. The Ocean threw tantrums, crying and crying and beating against the Land to find her Pearl but he never did. To make up for it, he created oysters, who live in the ocean and get sand stuck in them and produce pearls, so the Ocean could have as many pearls as she wanted, but she was still upset. She wanted her Pearl, their Pearl. Every time a terrible storm brings itself upon our town, it’s the Ocean begging for her Pearl back and wanting to punish whoever stole it. Happy?”

She had finished beheading bait and wiped her hands on her apron, moving onto her next task. As she stood up, Sea Hawk grabbed her arm, stopping her in her tracks. 

“Help me find it.”

“Excuse me?”

“Help me find the Pearl.”

The fisherman’s daughter scoffed, amused by the pirate’s flirting techniques. 

“Look, I’m not interested. Sorry that I don’t fall for every pretty face—”

“She spoke to me. The Ocean.”

Mermista shook her head, now looking at Sea Hawk like he had seven heads. 

“Are you serious?”

“I know I sound crazy, but she spoke to me. She wants me to find that Pearl. She even led me to you!”

“You’re insane.” She yanked her arm away, taking a step back from the crazed pirate, “That, or you’re really sad and lonely.”

Desperate, Sea Hawk fell on one knee and grasped Mermista’s chum-covered hand, “I know we just met, but My name is Captain Sea Hawk of the Dragon’s Daughter V and the Ocean spoke to me. She saved my life and requires payment, and I want you to join my adventure to find the Mother of Pearl. I don’t even know your name, I don’t need to know your name, but I need you. I can’t do this without you.”

From his kneeled position on the ground, Sea Hawk was able to really observe her likeness. A ring of sunlight fought its ways through the cumulonimbus farm, the rays creating a halo around Mermista’s head. She looked ethereal, her beauty shining through the wisps of hairs that stuck to her face, or the tatters that ran across the hem of her dress. It was a sign from the gods above that she was the one, the one to help him complete his most outrageous adventure yet, and he couldn’t do it without her.

A small flush of color burst across Mermista’s face, and she dragged Sea Hawk to his feet before anyone got the wrong idea, shaking him from his lovesick state.

“I  _ can’t. _ ”

“Why not?” He asked, genuinely confused. No one really denied his offer for adventure before.

“Because— my father needs me here! He’s about to go out and- and fish, it’s our business, our  _ family _ business. He needs me here.”

A small drizzle came falling from the heavens, the storm reaching its limit. Sea Hawk stood, holding onto Mermista’s hands, quietly gazing as she convinced herself of her lie. 

“Is that what you really want?”

She bit her lip and turned her head, watching her father chat with the baker’s son as he exchanged a bag of bread for most likely her hand in marriage.

“... No…”

Sea Hawk squeezed her hands and pulled them to his chest, “Then come with me. Come with us on our adventure for the Mother of Pearl. You can join my crew, experience life on the sea without the need of baiting a hook. Come with me.”

Mermista stared up at Sea Hawk, trying to dissect his words for lies. Her heart drummed in her ears, his pure ,look hope finding its way into her chest. The light rain penetrated his coat and shirt (which provided little cover with the gaping hole that had been added between his pecs) soaking him to the bone. She was shivering slightly, but he stood his ground, expecting eyes never leaving hers. 

She closed her eyes and looked away, pulling her hands out of Sea Hawk’s grip. 

“If we do this… we have to be back in three months. No later. I have, uh…. a date. I promised my father,”

Sea Hawk nodded, “Deal!”

“And I’m trusting you, if I end up sold to the Transatlantic Slave Trade I will hunt you down.”

“Cross my heart,” He mimed the motion and winked, “and hope to die.”

Mermista took one last look at her father, who clapped the back of the baker’s son and laughed. He climbed aboard his boat, preparing to set sail. 

She took a deep breath and stuck out her hand, “I’m warning you, pirate—”

“Sea Hawk.”

“Whatever. If the Pearl ends up fake or we end up dead because of some belief you have, I’ll kill you.”

Sea Hawk laughed and took her handshake, it was a genuine laugh which held no worry for the watery road ahead. 

“We won’t die, I promise.” He tilted his head slightly, a small smile twitching into his lips, “And I really did mean it.”

“Mean what?”

The cunning captain skipped backwards and winked, making his way back towards his ship while admiring the curious look on Mermista’s face.

“You really are beautiful.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry to ruin the novel-esque feeling, but I have a few notes. I busted this out in statistics so instead of learning, I wrote a pirate fic like you do. It’s bad, what can I say? I’m a sad business major, not a talented English major.  
> Some would say Sea Hawk moves pretty fast, I say that this is literally his canon behavior and in the words of Robert Palmer, “You’re gonna have to face it you’re addicted to love.”  
> I’ll probably post updates on my tumblr (mermist-uh.tumblr.com) and whatnot. The update schedule will be whack, but that’s college, babey!  
> Message me it you have any questions.  
> Thanks,  
> L


End file.
